


give me something to believe.

by katarama



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Developing Relationship, Future Fic, M/M, Soulmates, True Alpha Scott McCall
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-19
Updated: 2017-02-19
Packaged: 2018-09-25 13:14:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,824
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9822116
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katarama/pseuds/katarama
Summary: Scott doesn’t believe in soulmates.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [seriousshit88](https://archiveofourown.org/users/seriousshit88/gifts).



> For the prompt: McHaleinski + [I don’t believe each person has just one true love, but sometimes we don’t have enough time to find another. (That’s the way it crumbles. Cookie-wise.)](http://sleepy-skittles.tumblr.com/post/155287327552/50-a-softer-world-prompts)

Scott doesn’t believe in soulmates.  

He doesn’t even really know how to define soulmates.  He’s heard all the old legends, and he’s heard how they’ve been passed along over the years.  He knows that, supposedly, no one just has one soulmate.  He knows that some people supposedly never find theirs, or only find one, if they’re lucky.  He knows that some supposedly find their soulmates and then lose them.  He knows that some soulmates are romantic and others are platonic.

It just all seems pretty arbitrary to Scott.  What is the difference between a love and a soulmate?  Or a best friend and a soulmate?  He has known people who were certain that they’d met their soulmates, were certain with everything in them that this person was Theirs.  His mother loved his father deeply, when they first met and when they first married.  But are they still soulmates when things go bad?  Or were they never a soulmate in the first place?  Can someone stop being a soulmate if everything crashes and burns?  Can someone be a soulmate when they don’t treat their supposed soulmate well? 

To Scott, it just seems easier to go without the term.  It just seems easier to go through life and to love the people he loves, to give people appreciation and attention for the role they play in his life.  When Stiles was younger, his biggest mistake was to jump on the idea that he could choose his own soulmate, could predict the way his life would fall together as he got older.  He was certain at nine years old that Lydia Martin was his romantic soulmate, and when Lydia and Jackson hovered into each other’s orbits, Stiles was angry and in denial.

Stiles’ dad still swears with everything in him that Mrs. Stilinski was his only romantic soulmate, and that no one ever could replace her in his life and in his heart, so Scott can kind of see where Stiles got his approach from.  It just doesn’t work for Scott.  When Scott and Stiles finally started dating their first year of college, when the separation drove them to confessions, it took ages for Scott to get comfortable with Stiles calling him his romantic soulmate with such steady certainty.  Stiles said that they’d been in each other’s lives long enough that he didn’t know who else his soulmate could be, because nothing in the world could rip him away from Scott.

Scott still calls Stiles his boyfriend, his fiancee, now.  Scott hasn’t used soulmate out loud, ever, because he doesn’t want to jinx it.  He knows what it’s like to have loved and lost, first with Allison and then with Kira.  He remembers questioning things, with Allison, wondering if maybe he was wrong, and maybe soulmates were real.  If maybe two people could be destined to be together, maybe, or if they weren’t destined to be together, if they were at the very least destined to fit together just right.  He backtracked after the fact, wrote it off as naivety.

In private, he thinks that if he believed in romantic soulmates, Allison, Kira, and Stiles would all fall under that category.  And if he believed in platonic ones, then without a doubt Lydia and Malia would fit in there, because he can’t imagine his life without either of them.

Stiles may be the one lives with him and kisses him and sleeps in his bed, and he may have had the longest time to grow into Stiles, the longest time to uncover the places they fit together and to piece themselves back together when their edges were worn.  Stiles has been in his life as long as he can remember.  But that doesn’t mean that there could never be anyone else, anyone who he loved deeply and anyone who he could see himself forming a life with.  

His pack has been there through everything with him in the last few years, and that isn’t unimportant.  They went into things with only Deaton there to give them any sort of guidance, and it made them trust each other more than they could’ve possibly imagined.  So if Scott believed in soulmates, for real, if he thought it was more than wishful thinking, then he knows he would have more than one.  

“Only one romantic one, though, right?” Stiles needles him, and Scott can only easily say, “For right now.”

* * *

 

Scott has heard a lot about the Hales.  They’re a big name in the local supernatural community.  And Scott has met Peter, of course, and Cora.  

So maybe Scott should clarify.  Scott knows a lot about the Hales.  But Scott has heard a lot about Derek Hale.

Derek Hale came up way too much back in the mess with the Nemeton, and if Scott didn’t have a lot of reasons to distrust Peter, he might have accepted the pretty negative spin Peter put on things.  Deaton had vague but positive things to say about Derek.  Cora barely remembered him.  Stiles swears he hates the guy for causing so much mess for them to clean up and then getting the hell out of dodge, though Scott has reminded him more than once how completely unfair that is.

They’ve all seen the ashes at the old Hale house.

But for all Scott has heard about Derek, he’s never actually seen him.  So when a big, solid man with dark hair but gray in his beard swings by the clinic asking about Deaton, Scott gives him the usual spiel.

“I’m Scott McCall,” he says, holding out his hand.  “I took over Dr. Deaton’s practice when he retired.  Is there anything I can help you with?”

“Yeah,” the man says, looking at him with narrowed eyes.  “Tell me why there’s an alpha werewolf in Hale territory running Deaton’s clinic.”

“Oh,” Scott says.  He takes a second to collect himself, because if this is a situation where he’s going to have to fight, he has to have a game plan.  “What did you say your name was?”

“I didn’t,” the man says, like a challenge.  Scott sighs.

“I’ll bring Deaton in,” Scott says, getting out his phone.  “I have a feeling you’ll take it from him, better.”

* * *

 

Stiles stops by the clinic in the squad car before Deaton arrives.  Scott watches the man now sitting in the clinic lobby jump when Stiles slams the car door shut, which pretty much confirms anything Scott might need to know about whether he’s going to have to let the man into the back of the clinic or whether he’ll be able to open the gate himself.  

“Who the fuck is that?” Stiles asks Scott as he gives him a kiss.  He’s holding a plastic bag.  “Am I going to be expected to feed him, too?”

“I’m not sure he’d eat anything you offered,” Scott says wryly.  “He wants to talk to Deaton, he hasn’t been around since this was primarily Hale territory.  He doesn’t trust me.”

“Exclusively Hale territory,” the man corrects.  Stiles rolls his eyes.

“Whatever makes you feel better, big guy,” Stiles says.  “I’ve never met a Hale I liked, and they definitely aren’t in charge now.  None of them are even around these parts anymore.  Peter went rogue and killed the older sister and the younger sister’s with her girlfriend in South America.  Scott’s the alpha, now, and the territory’s protected as shit, so don’t try anything.”

“The younger sister,” the man says, his eyes growing wide.  

“Giant asshole, pretty hot, extremely lesbian,” Stiles says.  “Cora.”

From the wash of surprise and tentative hope that Scott can feel coming from the man, he has a good feeling that that wasn’t why the man was asking.  He didn’t want Cora’s dating profile via one Stiles Stilinski.

“Wait, what did you say your name was, again?” Stiles asks.

Scott’s heart clenches when the man says, “Derek.”

* * *

 

Deaton and Derek talk in private for a while before Derek comes back out, looking tired and red-eyed.  He shakes Scott’s hand and introduces himself for real.  Derek ends up staying with Scott and Stiles, to Stiles’ chagrin, because Scott refuses to let Derek live in the old burned out Hale house, like he says he wants to when pressed.  Scott calls Cora to tell him she needs to get to Beacon Hills ASAP.  

“I wasn’t planning on staying here long,” Derek tells them, but Scott knows how that goes.  No one plans to stay in Beacon Hills long.  But the city has a way of reaching out and dragging people back, or Scott wouldn’t be there anymore.

“It’s okay,” Scott says warmly.  He rubs gently at Derek’s back, drawing gently from the pain and tiredness he feels lurking under Derek’s skin.  Derek looks up at him, surprised.  “You can stay as long as you need to,” Scott reassures him.

(“You really need to quit taking in strays,” Stiles says that night, from the privacy of their soundproofed room.

“You’ve been checking out his ass since he got here, I don’t think you really mind,” Scott replies.

Of course, Scott is right.  He wouldn’t have said it if it weren’t true, and Stiles doesn’t even bother trying to deny it.)

* * *

 

Scott can’t explain how easily Derek fills in the cracks of daily life, how easily Derek starts to feel like a part of their family.  Mason spends hours asking Derek questions about werewolf legends across cultures and which, if any, are true.  Malia meets her cousin and dubs him “not too bad”, and Derek doesn’t seem to mind when she plops down next to him and leans her head on his shoulder.  Lydia flirts pretty hard at first before she slows her roll and actually starts to get to know him.  She has some pretty pointed questions about the nemeton that Stiles cheers her on for, but Derek clearly passes the Lydia test, because even she seems more comfortable with him over time.

Stiles quits complaining about Derek living with them when he realizes that Derek can cook, and things go even better after the night that Derek tells Stiles very quietly that he remembers Stiles’ dad, that he admires him and he appreciated all the work the sheriff did for his family.  Scott was worried the most about Stiles and Derek getting along; Scott decided not too far in that they were both initially prickly in a way that could rub the other in a really, really bad way.  But things seem to be slowly working their way out.  Derek was certainly not Stiles’ favorite person, at first, and Derek took a while to adjust to the abruptness and inconsistency that can come with living with Stiles. 

By this point, Scott’s pretty sure that Derek and Stiles are like.  An incident of being naked around each other and a conversation getting approval from Scott away from fucking.  Stiles hasn’t exactly been subtle about anything when it comes to Derek.

As for Scott, he actually… doesn’t think he’d mind that.  Especially if he got to watch.

But mostly, Scott doesn’t think about that, and he focuses on making Derek feel at home.  Scott and Derek fit together shockingly well, once things actually start to settle down.  Derek seems confused by Scott, at first.  From what Scott starts to piece together, he’s a very different kind of alpha from Derek’s mom, or Derek’s sister.  Scott being a True Alpha seems to hold a lot of importance to Derek, and it seems to win Scott a lot of trust.  Scott is trying hard.  When he meets Derek, Derek doesn’t seem too willing to trust much of anyone.  Scott wants to ask about what happened in New York to make Derek so jumpy, but he knows better than to go prodding into that kind of stuff without it being offered freely.  From what he _does_ know, Derek was basically packless for a while in a big, overwhelming city.

The longer Derek stays with them, the easier it is to consider him part of their pack.  He comes to all their family get-togethers, starts to meet all their parents.  Scott’s mom loves Derek.  She sets him and Scott to the task of helping her cook, and Scott can feel her eyes on them from where she’s sitting at the table with Stiles.  Derek and Scott talk to pass the time while their hands are busy, and Derek smiles at Scott all big and broad when Scott tells him terrible stories about the shit he and Stiles got into in that kitchen.  Just seeing Derek smile at Scott is enough to make Scott want to smile back.

“Derek, why don’t you grab Scott’s abuelita’s good plates from the basement,” Melissa asks, and she sends Stiles down with him to help Derek navigate the cluttered basement.  Scott is grabbing the oven mitts to put a tray of food in the oven when Melissa clears her throat behind him.

“Some people have two soulmates,” she says innocently.  Or, at least, that’s what she’s trying for.  There’s nothing subtle about the pride in her voice, the same sort of softness that Scott hears when she talks to the neighbor down the street about her son Scott and his wonderful soulmate, the the town’s Deputy Sheriff.  About how her boy grew up right, of course he found a handsome soulmate he loved.

Scott has tried to tell her it doesn’t work that way.  That even if he believed in soulmates, that having one isn’t something you can choose.  That having one isn’t something that happens to you because you’re a good person.  He can’t believe that anything else is true, because his mother is the best human being he’s ever met, and she’s growing older and hasn’t been on a date in years.  He doesn’t believe that romantic soulmates would be the end-all, be-all.

If they were real.

Right now, though, she looks so hopeful.  That her son could not only find one romantic soulmate, but may even have two.

“You’re getting ahead of yourself, Mom,” Scott says gently, because it’s easier than denying the whole premise of the comment.  “Derek is a good man, and I like him being around.  But he doesn’t plan to stay in town forever.  Even if he were, he isn’t going to stay.”

“Sometimes they don’t, sweetheart,” she says.  “That doesn’t make them less real during the time they’re there.”

The basement door closes again, and the conversation stops when Derek walks back into the kitchen, a giant box in his arms.  Melissa has Derek set the table when the rest of the pack starts coming in, and with the rest of the night flying by, Scott forgets about the conversation completely.

They’re back at Scott and Stiles and Derek’s place, and Scott is brushing his teeth when he’s reminded.

“You know I’m not leaving anymore, right?” Derek asks as Scott spits into the sink.  

“Yeah,” Scott says.  “I know.”

He knows this is the point where he should correct Derek, because Derek heard part of what was going on without the broader context of Scott and his mom’s interactions.  Scott should tell Derek that he doesn’t believe in any of it, and that, if anything, if soulmates are real and if Derek is anyone’s, it isn’t just Scott’s.  Because Derek has become a part of the pack, in such a short period of time.  And Scott thinks that pack honestly means more than “soulmate” ever could.  It means family.  It means bonds that will last.

But Scott doesn’t say that.  He just basks in Derek’s gentle smile, and Scott starts to wonder if Derek believes in soulmates, if it’s been something on Derek’s mind lately.

Because there’s one thing that Scott has realized from years and years of being in Stiles’ life, from years of listening to his mom talk.  Scott has realized that soulmates don’t make sense to him, and never will.  But for some people, they give them peace.  For some people, they make them feel like, for a brief moment in their lives, they weren’t alone.  That there was someone the world made just for them.  For some people, soulmates give them hope.

For a soulmate, Scott would think it is too early to tell if Derek is one of his or not.  There’s no handy dandy how-to guide for identifying them.   

But if Derek’s feeling it, then, well.  Scott likes him.  Stiles, against his worst impulses, likes him too.  And if Derek is entertaining the idea, then Scott isn’t going to tell him he can’t.  

Scott doesn’t believe in soulmates.  But Scott believes in romantic love, and in letting himself love whoever he loves without feeling guilty about it.  Scott isn’t going to cut off potential for love by telling Derek that the way he processes romantic love isn’t real.

“I think I’m happy just where I am,” Derek says, and Scott’s cheeks dimple.

“I’m happy you’re here, too.”

**Author's Note:**

> On tumblr [here](http://sleepy-skittles.tumblr.com).


End file.
